Reconstructing the Proto Indo-European Myth of Creation

What have I told you that gracious method, Genesis in the Old Testament of the Bible, and the Vikings' poem of creation, the Völuspá, along with the Puranic hymn in the Rigveda in India, are all based on the same story? Your first thoughts may not be to believe it. You know, the religions seem quite different, stories unrelated. But these Indo-European religions have a common ancestor and a common story of creation. And this original story, the one from which these religions evolved, is known as the Indo-European creation myth. And it was told by our Proto-Indo-European speaking ancestors. And in this video, which is an updated remake of an older video I did, I will discuss how we know about this myth, how it was reconstructed, and how common aspects in religion that then branched off from it. And I will also answer the main questions I've received on this topic since I first posted the video. And so, welcome to the story of the Indo-European creation myth, and welcome to Kraken Thought.

So, for those of you who are new to our channel, my videos have English subtitles to help clarify spellings. They have video chapters if you're looking for specific topics. And in the video description, I'll note the books and academic papers I've cited in the creation of this video. Please, if you have any questions, just ask in the comments section of the video, and I'll do my best to respond to as many as I can.

Now, this video is going to be in two parts, as I'm really keen on reading the appropriate passages of mythology that help establish the evidence I'll talk about today. But to read all those passages will probably take over an hour or so in itself, which I think will make this video far too long. So I'll choose that as a separate video, and my next video. And so, consider this an introduction to that. And if you haven't seen it, I would also recommend you watch my previous video on the Proto-Indo-Europeans, if you want some background into who they were and how we know that.

So, let me start by telling a reconstruction of this Indo-European creation myth. And this version is based on the work of David W. Anthony, the author of the book "The Horse, the Wheel, and Language," which is well worth a read if you're interested in Indo-European migration. And it's useful specifically if you want to understand the archaeology that helps support the understanding of Indo-European migration. And Anthony cites another great scholar, Bruce Lincoln, an author with many books on the subject. I have a fair number up there. And I'll recommend anybody interested in this reading a few of those. And in fact, if you want me to do a book review on these books, or any books I'd recommend on Indo-European culture and religion, then let me know in the comments, and I can easily do that.

Let me tell you the Indo-European creation myth. And this is the longest, most complete version I've told today, and uses the Proto-Indo-European names of people and gods. And I'll explain all these after I've told you the story. So, settle down, hopefully with a cup of tea, and let me begin.

Before there was time, before the beginning, there was darkness. And from darkness, time began. And when time began, so the cosmos produced fire and ice. This was the beginning of the cosmos. And within it, two brothers were formed, twins. Their names, Manus and Yemo. And with them was a cow, a giant cow. And through time, gods were created, both good and chaotic. And through the cosmos, they all traveled. Through the eons, they lived and grew until the brothers decided that they needed a home, a world on which to live, to inhabit, to create a place of order from the chaos of the cosmos. But to create this world, a sacrifice had to be made. And so it was that Yemo agreed to be sacrificed. And Manus killed him, offering the body to Deus Pater, the father of the gods. Manus cut Yemo's body into pieces, and from these, he created the world: the sun, the moon, the sea, the stars. He created fire and the winds. And finally, Manus created people. And the first of these, called Trito Manus, came down onto the world and there became the first priest. And he taught ritual sacrifice to the people to allow them to keep this world in order. And so, Manus having sacrificed Yemo to death, the gods showed their approval and gave cattle to Trito, a gift to allow people to be rich in food and materials. And all seemed good. But on this world, chaos had found a home. And the people's cattle, stolen undercover one night in a treacherous move by the three-headed, six-armed serpent called Ingui. Trito was not strong enough to fight off the serpent. And so, the next day, he made a sacrifice to the stone god Perkūnas, offering his ritual drink to gain the god's strength for a fight with the serpent. And Perkūnas was pleased and came to the world and said he would go with Trito to fight Ingui. And so, together they traveled far into the mountains, beyond the borders of their land, to retrieve the cattle. And when they arrived at Ingui's cave, that chaotic, three-headed serpent, they eventually slew him, allowing Trito to bring the cattle home. And with the cattle free and back on the land of the people, Trito became recognized as the first warrior, celebrated for recovering the wealth of his people and ensuring the priests received cattle for sacrifice to thank the gods for their help. And so, Manus created a sacrificial fire and over it killed a bull, offering it to the gods. The flames and the smoke reaching high into the sky. There, Deus Pater and the other gods received that sacrifice, ensuring their share, keeping the gods content, and encouraging them to keep chaos away. And in return, the gods continued to give cattle to the people. Manus continued to sacrifice, and a new king was crowned, and he was called Yemel. And he was prepared to sacrifice himself to keep the people safe and the lands fertile. And Trito continued to keep the cattle safe.

Now, if we were to break this creation myth down into its key component parts, we will find a pair of twins. Now, we will find a set of twins, Manus and Yemo, and a cow. Manus means man, and in effect, represents the first man. And he sacrifices Yemo, who represents a king, often considered his brother, and whose name means twin. And the motif behind the sacrifice of the king is that the sacrifice is required to create the world, and create that world, in this case, specifically from Yemo's body parts. And that's a motif that recurs in many Indo-European myths and allows order to be formed from the chaos of the cosmos. And this theme of the king and the land being connected is a motif that appears in many myths outside of the creation stories. We see stories that if the king is sick, then the land becomes less fertile or subject to plague or drought. That's a typical piece of story from the King Arthur legends, hey. And if the king is well, the land prospers, and the people are happy. And this probably all ties back to this motif: the king is the land, and the land is. And as an aside, if you want a deeper dive into understanding the importance of the twins in the Indo-European creation myth, I've made a video here covering the topic with a specific look at Romulus and Remus, comparing it to other Indo-European myths.

Now, with the twins, we also have a cow, which is a direct symbol of the importance of cattle in these times, primarily due to the relative ease of farming them and to the fact that literally 100% of the bovine and its waste was useful to the people at the time. You know, it could not only be used for food, but clothing, fertilizer, disinfectant, and milk, to name a few things.

Now, not all versions of the creation myths across the European landscape that have evolved from this original myth stick to the core themes. You know, there are cultural needs, the environment will shape the myth, and as time passes, so these changes evolve further. As an example, in some of the Christian messages, the twin who sacrifices man, or in others, the cow was sacrificed. But many have the world being created from the body parts of the sacrifice. And it is interesting to see the similarities and differences of what those body parts are used for. And in what is probably becoming my favorite catchphrase, I'll do a video specifically on that part of the myth as soon as I can.

And once the world is created from these body parts, Manus arrives. And not only in his capacity as the first man, he then goes off and often is the one who creates people. And there are various ways this happens: with parts of Yemo's body, or with parts of the world, or even with parts of monsters. And the other role of Manus that is important to know is that Manus is also considered the first priest. Now, priests were important in Indo-European culture, as important as the king, sometimes more so. And so, like a king, was considered a sovereign figure. And in the Indo-European creation myth, priests talk of making sacrifices to keep the world in order. It was a literal reference to the fact that gods were initially feared, and sacrifice was delivered as a gift to stop the gods causing harm and chaos, like storms, or floods, or disease. And again, over time, gods changed to be more ambivalent or even purely benevolent. But when we get to the second part of the myth, things change a little here. We are introduced to Trito, the warrior, whose name means third. So forms a one, two, three pattern with man, twin, and third, together in the myth. And this third man, this warrior, he was the heroic serpent slayer, rescuing stolen cattle, something captured in what we refer to as the cattle-raiding myths in Indo-European studies. And over time, this cattle-raiding myth evolved into a hero rescuing a princess from a dragon. Now, that in itself is such a complex topic. I suggest if you're interested in that, you watch my video on Trito to get more information specifically about that.

And so, to kill the three-headed serpent, Trito has to make a sacrifice to the storm god in return for the god offering him strength. And this makes sense, as the storm god is often considered the god of warriors in Indo-European belief. And the three-headed serpent probably is representative of the three-headed god worshipped by the Indo-Mediterranean cultures at the time. So, in effect, we have gods from different cultures fighting each other. And there's also some belief that the three-headed god was a female, and that may well be because there were a number of matriarchal societies that the descendants of the Proto-Indo-Europeans, which was an absolutely patriarchal society, took over. And this is partly due to understanding that the serpent was female, it reflects this, and also associating then the feminine with chaos, which is again what the serpent was associated with.

So now, we should also consider the question of whether the stone god was a warrior god before Trito sacrificed to him, or did the stone god, through continual sacrifice to him, become a warrior god? And here, we must remember that Trito is sacrificing for strength to benefit him, not to directly stop chaos and the serpent. Now, this is also interesting for the fact that perhaps the original sacrifice was probably Deus Pater, yeah, the father of the gods, the god that would eventually turn into Jupiter in Rome, or Zeus in Greece. And in fact, we know that Zeus was originally called Zeus Pērūnos. So Zeus is the storm god, yeah, at one point in his early history, so fulfilling both a sky father and storm god. Well, which makes sense if they are responsible for the sky, and also because they would have created cows, and the ox that was so important. But the split as a separate storm god had occurred by the time of Vedic culture in India had written the Rigveda, and from where we see some of the sacrificial evidence. So, the offering of the drink. And so, it's clear there are already major splits in pantheons by four and a half thousand years ago.

And one other thing that may be worth noting here from a religious point of view is that, as with many non-Abrahamic religions, the religious ritual, you know, this often is an important step in getting the god's power. It's not just having a belief. The sacrifice allows connection with the god. And this is something that I see people who practice heavily today sometimes forget, due to influence on society of the Abrahamic religions, and certainly Christian and Islamic writings and practices. They say that having faith is key. In pagan and heathen religions, ritual was key, not faith. And that is something that remained true until these other religions were eventually all but wiped out by Christianity in Europe. And this is something else I'm also happy to talk about if more people want to learn about that, just let me know in the comments.

So, you may be asking, how do we know all this? How do we know this myth is true? And so, let's start with how we know this is as close to source as possible. How we know this is original. And how do we know about Man and his twin, as the Manus and Yemo, as well as the cow and Trito, the third man, and the heroic warrior, and the cattle-raiding myths? Well, let's start with a synopsis of what being Proto-Indo-European means. And the last video I made goes into this in great detail, and I'll just say I recommend you watch that if you're interested in understanding the origins of the Proto-Indo-Europeans. But to summarize, to be Proto-Indo-European means that you speak a language which we call today Proto-Indo-European. Which may sound like we're talking about the first Indo-European language. That isn't it. The "proto" means hypothetical. Hypothetical Indo-European. In effect, we are talking about Proto-Indo-Europeans being people who spoke a specific language, and a hypothetical language, and not a specific culture. But because today we have no physical record of the language, no tangible evidence, direct tangible evidence of people speaking it, we can only hypothesize it exists, and hypothesize then that different cultures spoke derivatives of it, which have led to the linguistic landscape we have today in Europe and India. And then, to supplement this, we then use DNA and archaeological evidence alongside etymology, which is a study of a word's origins. And we combine these together to help trace similarities in all this evidence, which then allows us to trace the descendant Indo-European peoples and cultures back to a single source. And it is these people who were the original speakers of Proto-Indo-European and the source of the myth we're discussing today.

And so, what all this comes down to is that today, a majority of academics now believe that at a point in time up to 8,000 years ago, a group of people spoke Proto-Indo-European. They lived in the Russian Steppe, and they all shared a similar knowledge of farming technology, culture, and beliefs. And so, they were probably told the same stories around these things, and so started the evolution of the Indo-European creation. And as populations migrated across time and across land, so stories evolved along with the language, technology, and beliefs, leaving in place the evidence we see today, and that allows us to trace things back to one point.

But some still may challenge this and say, how do we know that these different cultures, different people, didn't just come up with the same creation myth? You know, even if they all agree languages are related, how do we know that the plot of the creation myth isn't just a human phenomena, a natural phenomena, often repeated? And this theory can be dismissed when the fact is that there is linguistic similarity across the myths, meaning that these myths have a single linguistic origin, you know, Proto-Indo-European, and therefore an original source, the Indo-European creation myth. And we know this, as I say, by the names being the same, example, in all these myths.

Now, this also then disproves any theories argued about the origin of the source not being from the Russian Steppe, such as there was a view of it being an Old Asiatic origin coming from China, predating Proto-Indo-European, and so making the myth nearly 10,000 years old. But the linguistics just do not support this. You know, however, there are some issues here, or the reason this is, I should say, is that scholars were struggling for some time with understanding how the myth exactly spread. You know, they were linked between Persia and Rome, we could see this in Persia to India, yeah, Persia to Greece. But the Germanic, and specifically the Old Norse version in Scandinavia, was a sticking point. Its age meant that recent migration in the last thousand years was not an option. So how could it have traveled from or to Scandinavia and evolved so much? Whereas this inference, but it was eventually deduced that the Old Norse version of the myth hadn't evolved, picking up new motifs on its way to Scandinavia, but it had in fact preserved the original myth. And so had details within it that were lost in other versions of the myths around Europe and in India. It hadn't evolved. It is, in fact, probably the oldest version of the myth we know. And once this was understood, then the understanding of the myth's evolutionary journey was far better comprehended.

And so, I'll now show a video of the European, or the Proto-Indo-European language migration across Europe, starting around 12,000 years ago. And the maps themselves are from a book called "The Horse, the Wheel, and Language," and it's the fourth book in a volume called "A Song of Sheep and Horses." And it's available from the Indo-European website, run by Carlos Quiles. And I'll link to this in the description of the video below if you're interested. Get hold of them. The books themselves are available as free PDF downloads and are sold in a not-for-profit manner from some bookshops, making them very affordable and offers some great background to the research behind the data that allowed the maps you'll better see to be produced.

Now, let's watch the video. You'll see how the Proto-Indo-European language forms around 8,000 years ago, and there's separate languages, you know, the relic is separate from Anatolian, and the Indo-European split also coincides with a split of beliefs, which I talk about in my video on the ferryman. And then the Proto-Indo-European language, in its native form, is completely lost as derivatives form the Vedic languages, form, and the European languages, form. And then towards the end of the Bronze Age, we start seeing multiple numbers of derivatives of languages that we're now used to seeing today. And I post these maps of animations of language and cultural migrations separately on my YouTube channel, and people have asked to see these, so you can have references directly to them. And so, seeing these, we can see how language spreads, and this allows us to position the creation myth and religious practices and their migrations, and we can sort of get a better understanding how the creation myths spread the languages and cultures of the people across the Indo-European landscape.

And for this, I'll put up another map. And what we'll do is we'll go over the myths we know that are related. And once I've done this and shown their relationship based on their linguistic evolution, we can then specifically look at most of these to discuss their specific similarities. So, first, I'll put up a Proto-Indo-European marker on the map to show where the myth was probably first told, and the language it was told in. Now, as I said, my next video, I'll go through each step of migration, reading the passages that support this, and delving deeper into the text and any analogues that may be useful. But for now, we'll discuss just at a high level the main evidence that supports the connection. In effect, consider this an introduction to the next video.

And so, as discussed earlier, we know that one branch of the myth went through Germania, and that was known through the writings of Tacitus. And within those, he talks of Tuisto, meaning twin, and his son Manus. And for Manus, three tribes were born. But the writings here are limited. But these observations were obviously important differentiators between the Germanic tribes and Rome, which is why they were written about. The names are cognates with Yemo and Manus, with the creation myth, the twin man, and the creation of the people.

The Old Norse myth, a close descendant of the original myth, as we discussed, was also a story told by the Vikings across Scandinavia, although without there, there would have been variations of this. And we actually see this in some texts. Two main books we can refer to are the Prose Edda and the Poetic Edda. Now, the Prose Edda was written in the middle of the 13th century by a Christian scholar, Snorri Sturluson, and it talks about the beginning of the cosmos between fire and ice, and the creation of the primordial being, Ymir. And again, we see a word cognate with Yemo of the Proto-Indo-European myth, meaning twin. And with Yemo, the text talks of a cow named Thumla, from which Yemo drinks milk to maintain his strength. And alongside this, we have the text of the Poetic Edda, of which, in poetic form, tells of how the gods are created, including Odin and his brothers, who sacrificed the twin figure of the Old Norse Ymir to create the world. And then the gods go to this world and create man. And this is where we see different versions of the story with different gods, depending on whether you're reading the Prose Edda or the Poetic Edda. But the creation of man is an entirely separate subject, and I'll probably do another video about that in the future, too.

So, from here, next is a short hop to Rome. And here, the myth has changed to become a myth of creation of a city. And the story shows that many primitive variables of creation myth have been forgotten by the time this story is written. But the concept of a blood sacrifice remains, with Remus being killed when he jumps over the city walls seeking Romulus. But we also see versions of the story change, specifically when it comes to Romulus, who in the older versions of the story was killed and quartered by the Senate, very much an analogy of Yemo being cut up and allowing the world to be built. And it's only later the story evolves and Remus survives before becoming a god, a change that was made to make it a far more appropriate end for the founder of Rome.

If we then move east to the fifth century BCE, we find a book called the Zend Avesta, or the Younger Avesta. And within it, Yasht 19, here the story talks about the flight of Yima's kingly glory, a power known as Xvarenah. Here, Yima is a cognate of the Proto-Indo-European, meaning twin. But here, we also see an important point of difference, and that is around the idea of kingship between the Iranians and Indo-Europeans. For the Indo-Europeans, the king is the leading man who contains within his body the essence of all three social classes: priests, warriors, and commoners. But in Iran, these essences were eventually combined into this, rather than the physical king himself. However, this is not the only change. In the Avestan videos, we also see a more spiritual afterlife than a natural death is the end approach to the debt. And so, there's some real belief shifts in the migrations that happened after the first migrations from the Russian Steppe. And this again reinforces the fact that we have to be careful who we label as Proto-Indo-European, as these Iranians may have still spoken the same language as those who are migrating to Germany and Scandinavia, but now have a quite different set of beliefs. And the Younger Avesta also has reference to radiant myths as well, with the mention of a three-headed serpent called Azhi Dahaka, again cognate with Ingui. So, in this one text, we have the combination of the king, the twin primordial figure, and the cattle-raiding myth into one story, and one that migrated in the opposite direction to those people going to Europe. And this reinforces the beliefs that the Old Norse myth is the oldest, as it to maintains these ideas.

Now, we then look at the Persian Great Bundahishn, a book written around 1,300 years after the Zend Avesta. It also has influence from the Indian Bundahishn. And we can see that it developed on the ideas of those books. And within the stories, there are remnants of the original myths, despite Zarathustra, the object into the original creation myth and the beliefs around it. But he couldn't ignore this. You know, there was too much investment of people into these myths. And so, this is fortunate for us, as these remnants hold sort of evidence and act as evidence pointing back to the earlier Indo-European mythology. Within this text, we have Gaomat, a name that evolved from the evolution of the words "Gaya" meaning life, and "Martya" meaning mortal. In effect, suggesting he was the first mortal man. And Gaya is cognate with Yemo, and so links to the twin. And so, Gaomat is that an evolution of Yemo? What is also worth noting about this text is that it also states that an ox, his sacrifice, helped create the world, to gain linking motifs back to the early Indo-Europeans.

Next, we can go to the Vedic culture in India, and we can find the Purusha hymn of the Rigveda. Now, Purusha may not sound like Manus or Yemo, or cognate of either, but the name literally means man. And it seems to come from philosophical theological speculation. And such speculation changed the figure's name, gaining in the prime minister as Purusha, man becoming Pati, lord of creatures. But the underlying story is still the same, and it is man who is sacrificing this creation. But the morphological and structural features convince us that this is the same twin figure encountered in the Iranian myth.

From here, we can cross to China, where we find the Chinese Taoist legends of Pangu. And in a creation myth, with Pangu being formed in an egg that is also contains the chaos of the cosmos, called Hundun. Now, this version of myth is now somewhat removed from the Proto-Indo-European version, but it's thought the Purusha hymn influenced it. And within the myth, there are these two figures at the start of the cosmos from which all things were created.

Now, we had then have the Satapatha Brahmana, which is another text from India. And within it, there's an ancient myth of Man, who's wife Manavi, and probably her sister too, who are sacrificed. And so, behind these two women lie the relics of the primordial twin. But also, with dismissed, the victims are also joined by a bovine, much like the Old Norse myth. And it was this discovery of the bovine that really added weight to the fact that the Old Norse myth was the oldest, and that added much weight to the argument that these myths spread from the Proto-Indo-Europeans. And we also have from this region, the Indian Bundahishn, an early version of the Bundahishn text that went to Persia.

And so, from here, we can move to Mesopotamia and the Near East, and we start seeing some interesting changes to the myth. The Babylonian creation myth, which we know evolved from the Sumerian creation myth, was written on a set of clay tablets, we know collectively as the Enûma Eliš. And starts with two water serpents called Apsu and Tiamat. Now, whilst the names aren't cognate with twin or Manus, as they relate to water, are given an indication of the importance of water in the region. We do know that Tiamat, the female of despair, is almost always depicted as some kind of serpent form. However, a tablet of the Enûma Eliš, which was documented in 1961 in the Journal of Near Eastern Studies, infers that Tiamat is actually a cow. And therefore, we can start linking the twin figures of Apsu and Tiamat with a cow, showing this distinct connection to the original Indo-European creation myth. And to add weight to this, Tiamat's body is used to create the world by Marduk.

Now, I get many challenges to this from people saying there's no source that says this. And so, I'll definitely link to the papers in the description which show the source, and it's based on the translation of the tablet. So, it isn't an outdated theory. You know, it is something that's supported by Lincoln and therefore Anthony in their writings too, in their academic studies. But what I do acknowledge is that we don't have any imagery from any iconography that infers this to show Tiamat as a cow. Although we have found Zoroastrianism influenced imagery in Jewish synagogues. So, I feel there is undoubtedly influence from the Indo-Europeans in this part of the world, seen through the influence of myths, even if there isn't significant DNA evidence right now to support this. You know, the Sumerians are basically said to be a bit of a mystery when it comes to us in terms of DNA archaeology.

From here, our next place we can go is the Abrahamic religions where they were born. And these two were influenced by the Indo-European creation myths. The first few verses of Genesis infer the Babylonian creation myth is known by the reader, what is also called the Enûma Eliš. And so, inferred the idea to twins of Tiamat and Apsu. And so, shows influence from the earlier Indo-European creation myth. But there are also other texts that support this influence, such as the Book of Job, which talks further about using Tiamat's body to build a world, and again, inferring the story of Enûma Eliš is hidden behind the surface of some of the Old Testament writings.

Now, there is another Abrahamic book worth examining, and that is the Second Book of Enoch. A book which is meant to have been written by Noah's great-great-great-grandfather, I think. And in there, we find a reflex of the creation of the world and the creation of Adam being made from parts of the world, in effect, an inversion of the creation myth. And perhaps a conscious decision to move away from the old myth, much like Genesis did in removing the mythology to reduce the chance that questions would be asked about that mythology. Now, whilst I look at knowledge that the Book of Enoch is not in most versions of the canonical Bible, it was known by Jews, and it has been used in Ethiopian versions of the Bible.

Now, we can go to Russia as well, and there is the Poem of the Dove King, sometimes called the Dove Book. And here, it talks about how parts of the world are made from parts of God. And so, this motif of body parts forming the world persists. And again, here, academics believe that this is from influence of the Indo-European creation myths from Persia.

And finally, if we go over to Greece, here there are a number of texts that all show links to the Indo-European creation myth. So, we have from the theory of development of the Corpus of Greek mythology, two traces found in the Orphic Hymn of Zeus, specifically Fragment 168, as well as Plato's Timaeus, which talks about the creation of the universe, the planets, and of course, therefore, the earth, the moon, and the sun.

Now, as I mentioned earlier, in my next video, I'll read the passages from most, if not all, of these texts, and we'll go into more detail about the connection and the analogues where appropriate. And I hope you'll find that interesting, as some of the passages are difficult to find English translations of, so I'll be using some of my own work to help you understand this.

So, to summarize, we can look at a table of the things I've talked about today, the characters in these questions, and we can see similarities. And what we can see is that the commonality of the world being built from the sacrificial being, that most myths where we know details still have a bovine with them, and that man and his twin persists throughout them, with names that are often cognate. Now, I have a larger table comparing many more cultures and aspects of their myths and pantheons, and I'd love to go over this, but I'm not sure how best to do this, because it wouldn't fit on the screen, it'll be really boring to go through bits. So, if anyone has any ideas of how I can best do that, please let me know in the comments below. But for us now, the key commonalities between these myths are noted. I hope it's now easier to see these connections and how they're aligned with language migration, which is self-aligned with cultural migration, allowing us to feel confident these myths migrated from a single source, which would have been from the Russian Steppe and the Proto-Indo-European population that we believe lived there.

I also hope I've answered some of the major questions I get asked around this subject. But if you have any specific questions, let me know below, and I'll answer as many as I can. And what I will say, whilst you are here at the end of the video, I'm hoping you've one, you've enjoyed it, and you'll want to know some more. But I do have a question for you. This YouTube channel has exceeded my expectations. I did this because of lockdown and the universities shut down, and I'm keen to create a community from the viewers on this channel. You ask some brilliant questions, and you're influencing what I talk about, and I'm looking for the best way to provide a platform to better manage this, to better talk to you, to allow us to discuss things. So, if you have any ideas and preferences about how to do that, then please let me know in the comments below. I mean, Facebook doesn't seem to engage enough, as I've been looking at Discord, or perhaps Patreon, or even membership on YouTube. But I'm not doing this for money. I've turned down a number of sponsorship opportunities, and so don't let that influence your thoughts. I do this because I love to teach. And so, if you have any thoughts, please put them in the comments to say, and I'll read them all and see if we can find a way to talk. And from that, I say thank you for watching and liking the video, or at least I hope you did. And until the next one, please stay safe and stay well. And this was Kraken Ford.